A Just school or just school

dublin | education | opinion/analysis Wednesday December 23, 2009 11:44 by Brendan Butler 086 4054984

Religious Ethos

Has the term 'religious ethos' any substance in fact .If it is claimed to be a major factor in the life of a school then let it be evaluated in terms of outcome just as we have league tables in terms of academic achievement.

The Just school or just school

In our present turbulent civil and church society it is time to stop and reflect what has given rise to this unease and seething anger.. The chasm between our assumed values and our social ,political and church reality is now wider and more gaping than we ever assumed could exist. Or maybe we all assumed in our arrogance that banana republics existed only in South America and surely couldn’t exist in our high civilised society.

Injustices being man- made on a interpersonal level have been perpetuated through social structures such as education and myths emerge to justify these structures. Religious Ethos may be viewed as one of these ethereal myths which have acted as a formative influence especially within school structures. So often a religious ethos in the Catholic secondary school was associated with a repressive regime of obedience to an authoritarian structure. Students who obeyed were rewarded at senior level with the sharing of the enforcement of a rule regulated society . Behaviour was rewarded which perpetuated the school structures and these in turn prepared the now socialised young adults to fit into an equally repressive and authoritarian society. And so the circle of injustice remained hidden under the guise of a religious ethos which in effect was a cultural creation to justify the dominance of one section of society over another.

Just as a past religious ethos was used to perpetuate an unjust structure it is possible to concretise this ethereal ethos into a social reality where every person in the society is equally valued and this can be done through the educational system. A religious ethos properly understood must develop the reality of freedom and justice within the emerging personality where the inner becomes outer and the outer becomes inner. A religious ethos without its foundation in justice is a sham and does a grave disservice to the true nature of religion. Equally a secular ethos within a school should equally develop a person who is a person for others while fully developed themselves.

The educational system is a crucial and critical factor in the creation of a just society or in the perpetuation of an unjust one. If we can create just schools where the concept of justice is caught rather than taught then there is every possibility that once this concept is realised in school structures then justice becomes a major motivating force in the lives of our young adults as they emerge as a potential force for justice in the wider society.

The concept of a just school must be the raison d’etre of every school. Just as we have Green schools awarded the Green flag for environmental success we could equally have a just school rewarded with a flag of civic excellence. My experience over the past thirty years of teaching and managing in a religious run secondary school is that if students are treated with a just respect and whose grievances are listened to and acted upon ,if necessary, then a culture of respect is generated within the school and an impersonal school society can develop into a community of students and teachers where respect for each becomes a palpable reality. My hope would be that this model would be internalised by all students and they in turn would become a transformative influence for justice when they emerge into the wider society.